


You're drunk

by ikairuscos



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Awesome James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Dorms, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, How Do I Tag, Howard Stark - Freeform, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, I love them so much, I only know tumblr tagging wtf, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Ironhusbands, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark at MIT, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, MIT Era, Not Beta Read, Pre-Canon, Pre-Iron Man 1, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Underage Drinking, no beta we die like man, tony stark - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:22:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28216917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ikairuscos/pseuds/ikairuscos
Summary: Tony comes back to the dorm after a fight and Rhodey is there to catch him.
Relationships: Howard Stark & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 42





	You're drunk

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Underaged drinking, Implied/referenced drug use, Implied/referenced domestic abuse

A knock on the door made James jump a bit and he nearly smashed the cup of tea he was holding in his right hand. With a mumbled swear he placed it on his desk and walked over to the door. Whoever this was better had a really good excuse for bothering him at this time. Maybe it was someone looking for his well-known roommate but James had no idea where the hell he was and doesn’t want to know anyway.

But when he opened the door there were no strangers nor a friend or acquaintance, in the matter of fact there was no one standing in front of the door. He was in the progress of closing the door again, dismissing it as a stupid joke from some drunk freshman when he heard an inaudible whisper from the hallway. “Is someone there?”, he asked quietly in the darkness so he wouldn’t wake up any of the other exhausted students in the dorm. “I’m sorry.”, a young voice somewhere to his right whispered and his whole body froze.

“No, no, no, no, you should be in some mansion on the other side of the country. What do you want from me?” He sounded harsher than he intended to but he hadn’t expected to see his best friend for at least two weeks. But the dark figure who was sitting on the ground next to the door him was definitely Tony. The same Tony who told him just hours ago that he doesn't need him or his attempts to care for him. 

Tony, who was now trying to stand up by using the wall as support. “It’s good to see you too Rhodey- bear. I’ve missed you a lot. I mean we saw each other a few hours ago but I bet you missed me too. Must be awful quiet here without me.”, the words are so slurred that James nearly didn’t understand him. When he was finally standing he made a shaky step forward in the light of the open door and James inhaled sharply: “What the hell happened to you?”

Tony looked down, as if he saw the big blood stains on his original white shirt for the first time: “Oh this? I cut my hands with a bottle I tried to open. I think I smashed the neck of the bottle. Look!” he attempted to show the other one his destroyed palms but the motion made him lose his balance and he stumbled forward. 

Without thinking twice about it James made a step forward and caught him to press him against his chest so he won’t fall face-first on the ground. "Oops.", he felt Tony's laugh against his chest and it took him the rest of his serenity to not snap at him. "You’re drunk." It's not a question it's a statement and if Tony had been sober he would have noticed the disappointment in his voice. But he just continued to laugh and nodded a few times. 

With an exasperated sigh, James lifted the teenager off the ground and carried him into the room to drop him on his bed. As soon as he moved Tony into a sitting position he rushed over to close the door and then faced Tony again: "You wanna tell me what happened after you run off or why you are here after you made your opinion about me so clear?" The genius looked really small, sitting there on the edge of the bed staring at his still bleeding hands. Hell, sometimes James forgot that he was just 16 years old. 

When he was still not answering after a minute and just continued to draw patterns of blood on his shirt James let out a defeated huff and started walking to the bathroom: "We will talk in a minute but let me first clean up your hand, can't let you die of a few glass shards." When he returned from the bathroom with a small first aid kit in his hands Tony had at least taken of this shirt and tossed it into the trash can. James groaned at the sight, this shirt probably costed more than his entire wardrobe but it was too soaked in blood to wash it all off. 

“Didn’t you ruin another one of these thousand dollar shirts last week?” Tony shrugged and looked at him with blurry eyes: “Doesn’t matter. My dad pays for them.” “No excuse for being that careless.”, James mumbled under his breath and ignored Tony’s small whimper when he took his hands in his own so he could start to carefully take out the last glass shards. When he finished he continued to gently wipe the blood and dirt off.

It was quiet for a few minutes but when James began to bandage the wounds Tony finally started to speak: "I’m sorry for what I said. When we fought I mean. I… I was angry at my dad ‘cause he ordered me over for some stupid gala and said he would kill me if I'm not sober when I arrive. And then you were also telling me to be sober for the next weeks cause we will write exams and I just wanted to get drunk enough to deal with my dad and maybe take a few pills. It was too much and I let it out on you. I'm sorry."

He still sounded really drunk and James doesn’t think he will remember this conversation when he wakes up tomorrow but at least he sounded honest. While he was still thinking about how to respond to that he finished his work on Tony’s hands and stood up again. While he threw the shards away and cleaned up the smaller boy started talking again: "I would totally understand if you don't want me here. I was an asshole and now you have to take care of me like I'm a stupid child and I wouldn’t have bothered you but my dad and I had a fight and it got a bit ugly. After that, I drunk a bit and I just… I mean I didn't know where to go. And you were the only person I could think of and how unfair I…" James interrupted him with a short but gentle: "You're rambling." The confused look on Tony’s face just made him look even younger and James felt a wave of sadness and anger washing over him. 

The kid shouldn't be here, he shouldn't drink more on a day than James himself in a month, he should be at a normal high school and not at an elite college with people who were several years older than him. He should have a normal teenage life. But normal has never been a word you would associate with the Stark family. He stopped his train of thoughts when he noticed that Tony was still staring at him with an expecting look on his face. "Look, I accept your apology but we will have a proper talk tomorrow when you are sober so please go to sleep now." 

It said a lot about Tony’s current state that he didn’t complain and just stripped of his jeans to fall on his bed in just boxer shorts. He wrapped himself in his blankets and James’ heart ached a bit when he saw the big bruise on his best friends back. Got ugly indeed. He quickly turned off the light and threw himself in his own bed to read for a bit while watching Tony with a worried expression of the corner of his eyes: “Good night Tones." The reply was muffled by his pillow and he already sounded half-asleep but it made him smile nonetheless: "Night, Rhodey."

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt I wrote months ago so I'm not 100% happy with it anymore but it's rotting in my drafts, so I decided to post it.   
> And I know that it reads a bit choppy but I'm not really sure how to fix it.  
> I'll just try to get back into writing. Maybe I will even post a bit more.


End file.
